The objective of the invention relates to a method for the processing of tires and for the manufacture of products comprised of the tire material, to a device for cutting up tires as well as construction of interwoven mesh structures or bodies such as blocks, hollow bodies, mats or aligned units manufactured from the cut-up tires.
The invention is particularly applicable to the conversion of used tires, non-recyclable for traffic purposes, arising from motor cars, road haulage trucks and aircraft, into a new basic construction element which can be used for the manufacture of a wide scope of commercial products. Intermediates for the manufacture of new end-products are rings cut out of the tires.
Comminution of tires no longer permissible for use as such, by means of shredders for example, with subsequent use of the fragments as aggregate material, in cement production or as fillers in road construction substrates for example, is well known. Further application possibilities for discarded tires are incineration and thus the production of heat energy, chemical decomposition into raw products or deposition on dumping grounds.
Of disadvantage in the known application possibilities is that the said possibilities only permit recycling after loss of quality, raw material or characteristic properties. Centralization of the application can only proceed via transportation of the tires without reduction of their volume.
Patent No. DE 39 33 729 A1 describes a process for recycling discarded tires wherein the tires are cut up to form endless ribbons. The array of utilities of such endless ribbons is relatively limited.
In Patent No. DE 33 086 51 A1 a network of tire shaped bodies is described wherein the tires are not cut into narrower slices or are arranged in cut form into rings or strips.
The disadvantage of this solution is that additional fastening elements such as rivets, clasps or pins are necessary for the interconnection of rings produced from tires.
In patent No. DE 42 009 49 A1 a method and device for the dismemberment of discarded tires is described wherein a fixed rotationally driven tire is cut into slices by means of adjustably arranged cutters on the outside face, resulting in production of the running tread of the tire, two tire walls and two wheel rim beads.
The invention is thus based on the objective of creating a method and a device by means of which effective reprocessing of a wide variety of tires is possible and intermediates of new end products with high user quality can be manufactured in simple ways at attractive prices.
A further objective of the invention is to demonstrate a new range of applications and utilization of the end products.
The said objective is achieved according to the invention by the features defined in sections of claims 1, 9 and 18 in conjunction with the features generic to the independent claims in each case.
Appropriate embodiments of the invention are to be found in the subordinate claims.
A particular advantage of the invention is that the conversion of the tires into intermediate product rings is a fully environmentally friendly production method, in the process of which no waste accrues and no pollutants are discharged, and wherein the tires are dismembered by a sequence of cuts in such a way that the two side walls are separated from the running tread and the rings arising from the side walls and/or running tread are combined together to form new products. The rubber-cased metal ring ensuring firm seating of the tire on the wheel rim can also be recycled.
All tires which cannot be fully remolded, are not deformed and have not been cut open transverse to the tread can be used for the method in terms of the invention. The method enables conversion of tires wherever they accumulate.
A further advantage of the invention exists in the fact that the elasticity of the rings retains its proportional share of the strength associated with the tire, production of the rings being such that the tire is fixed to a holding facility and rotated by a drive roller which produces an internal swelling and is aligned with a shaft possessing at least one cutting blade which cuts through the running tread of the tire from the inside.
The surface area and volume of the mass to be transported is reduced to material volume or unit weight respectively by the ring form created. In its new form, i.e. as rings, the tire is transportable without occupying the former volume of a complete tire. The rings created can be compressed to any desired two and three dimensional form permitted by the ring created.
The rings in suitable form can be stacked and transported. If the rings are to be transported to permanently installed cutting facilities or another recycling facility, it is advantageous for the purpose of saving transport space to slit the tires parallel to the middle of the running tread in such a way that two U-shaped parts result which can be stacked inside each other.